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- Convenors:
-
Ferne Edwards
(City, University of London)
Aylin Yildirim Tschoepe (University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland)
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- Discussant:
-
Bettina Stoetzer
(MIT)
- Formats:
- Panel
- Mode:
- Online
- Sessions:
- Thursday 18 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
A conceptualisation of Western cities needs to be “undone” to recognise the agency, ethics and values of multispecies natures within more-than-human places. This panel asks: How can anthropology contribute to understandings of multispecies coexistence towards realising just and sustainable cities?
Long Abstract:
A conceptualisation of Western cities needs to be “undone” to recognise the agency, values and ethics of multispecies natures within more-than-human places towards new possibilities of coexistence. Anthropology can contribute to this shift by going beyond the human toward relationally, reciprocally and ethically considering nonhuman creatures in new terms, spaces and times. This is not a new task – more-than-human or multispecies anthropologists, geographers, designers, and urbanists have already begun this reconceptualisation of the city. However, many also acknowledge that current approaches, such as nature-based solutions, ecosystem services and sustainable urban projects, often remain limited in their disciplinary perspective, scope and ethics. There is a need to recognise remnant and new forms of nature appearing in cities, and the encounters and spaces that can unfold – especially as urbanisation pressures coupled by disasters further increase proximities, thus heightening potential human/nonhuman zones of friction. We ask: How can anthropology contribute to the reconceptualisation and transition to a just and sustainable city of multispecies coexistence? We draw on and extend from publications such as ‘Urban Natures: Living the More-than-Human City’ (Edwards et al., 2023), ‘The Multispecies Salon’ (Kirksey, 2014), ‘When Species Meet’ (Haraway, 2008) and ‘Staying with the Trouble’ (Haraway, 2010) to invite contributions along the following lines:
• ethnographic research and/or
• theoretical explorations on multispecies matters and spaces
• further methods/methodologies for reconceptualising coexistence
• research on the agents and practices in an emerging zoopolis
We welcome contributions that explore the question and these lines in text-based and multimodal formats (text and images/video/audio/mapping, etc).
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 18 July, 2024, -Tanja Aal (University of Siegen) Konstantin Aal
Paper short abstract:
Against the background of the endeavour to design sustainable, more-than-human cities, this contribution focuses on the mindset of future experts in the field of Human-Computer Interaction within the context of a teaching concept in the field of "Multispecies Urbanism”.
Paper long abstract:
The sustainable more-than-human smart city that we want to achieve against the backdrop of equal participation and an urban design that counteracts the climate crisis is based on the same mindset of experts or citizens that makes such a design possible. Against this background, this contribution addresses future experts in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. As part of a teaching concept that combines research and education, the topic of "Multispecies Urbanism" will be explored in an interactive digital seminar by students from the same degree programme coming from interdisciplinary fields. In individual and group work, challenges of various vulnerable actors in the context of urban design as well as possible social or socio-technical solutions are developed. Both literature (Edwards et al., 2023) and creative methods (Disney method, speculative design) are considered. The knowledge built up serves as the basis for an individual art project that ultimately serves to generate a fictional solution to a real problem or requirement from the perspective of a particular human or non-human vulnerable actor. Furthermore, the seminar corresponds to the empirical phase of a research interest and the question "How can inclusive 'real' smart cities be designed as ethical future environments for human and non-human actors?", evaluating personal attitudes, irritations and learning experiences. Against this background, we would like to reflect on the results of both the individual art projects and the semi-structured interviews.
Santiago Orrego
Paper short abstract:
By focusing on to the more-than-human encounters in two public places in Berlin where people go to see and pet farm animals, the Tierpark Neukölln and the Kinderbauernhof in Görtlizer Park, this contribution explores the dilemmas, challenges implications of animal captivity in contemporary cities.
Paper long abstract:
Conceiving cities as more-than-human assemblages (Griffiths et al., 2000; Franklin, 2016), this contribution explores a relatively uncharted urban scenario for multispecies interaction and cohabitation: the urban animal enclosures. Urban animal enclosure is a critical conceptual framework created to refer to those public places in the city where —mainly farm— animals are displayed and kept in captivity for human educational and recreational purposes. Those scenarios are known, among other names, as animal parks, children’s farms, and petting zoos. Divided into three parts, this presentation introduces the preliminary findings of an ethnographic exploration of human-animal encounters carried out in two of those scenarios: the Tierpark Neukölln and the Kinderbauernhof in Görtlizer Park. The first part of this presentation will take care of introducing both places, situating them in a local context, and presenting the different types of enclosures around Berlin. The second section will pay particular attention to the infrastructures and animal-managerial logic behind the enclosures. It will discuss the double condition behind those scenarios: as places of more-than-human domination and imprisonment, and as scenarios of multispecies interaction where urban humans have access to different animals that they do not normally seen in their daily life in cities. After that, the focus will be on the interactions between humans, particularly visitors, and the animals. It will reflect on the role of animals as entertainment and educational devices, unpack some dilemmas on captivity and propose a critical reflection on the idea(lization) of the urban as a more-than-human site for multispecies exchange and cohabitation.
Zuzanna Nalepa (University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan, Poland)
Paper short abstract:
The paper focus on the anthropological issue of auditory (un)awareness of human inhabitants of the Ostrow Tumski district in Poznan, Poland, in the perspective of urban studies, sound studies and more-than-human anthropology.
Paper long abstract:
In the presentation, I focus on the issue of auditory (un)awareness, which was one of the categories I addressed during field research conducted in 2021-2023 in the Ostrow Tumski district in Poznan, Poland. Ostrow Tumski is located on the last island on the Warta River, where the habitats of human inhabitants and habitats of non-human beings intertwine, but it is also an area where urban policy is expressed. Ostrow Tumski district in Poznan is an area of many interdependencies that can be considered trans-relational (Majbroda, 2021). The subject of the research conducted in close cooperation with the inhabitants of the Ostrow Tumski district in Poznan was sound, also considered as an analytical category (Stanisz, 2014). The experiences of multi-species and auditory life on Ostrow Tumski are most often unconscious for its inhabitants, transparent, difficult to access, and at the same time rooted in everyday urban life. Its space is filled with various communities (of human and non-human beings), and the audiosphere is filled with sounds of various origins.
In the context of urban research, the issue of memory (Pallasmaa, 1994) and its role in building urban matter (Tonkiss, 2015) is very important, which in the case of the mentioned research revealed the issue of auditory (un)awareness of the trans-relational dimension of being in the world of the human inhabitants of the district.
The main postulate of the presentation is therefore to practice urban anthropology in a way that is posthumanistic, multi-sensory and takes a more-than-human approach for granted.
Eline van Oosten (University of Amsterdam)
Paper short abstract:
In this presentation I present ethnographic fieldwork excerpts on the enactment of urban health inequalities in the city of Amsterdam studied through the lens of metabolism by focusing on the metabolic relations between rats, humans and waste infrastructures.
Paper long abstract:
The increasing recognition of the city as a “living environment” (Hinchliffe & Whatmore 2006) or “ecological formation” (Barua & Sinha 2022), suggests a need to study the formation of urban health inequalities in the city beyond a focus on either humans or human-made structures. My project studies the enactment of urban health inequalities in the city of Amsterdam through the lens of metabolism, by focusing on the metabolic relations between rats, humans and waste infrastructures. Rats throughout history have become symbols of disease, disorder and larger community problems, even though they pose no significant health risks for humans today in Amsterdam. They tend to thrive in urban areas with ample dwelling space and food waste making them synanthropic; benefitting from and in human-made environments. Metabolism here figures as an interesting concept to explore the city as a large circulatory organism produced through more-than-human relationality as well as a lens for more-than-human scholars in the broader social sciences studying ‘natural-cultural borderlands’ to emphasize the interdependence and transformatory relations between lively beings and their environments (Kirksey & Helmreich 2010). In my presentation I will present ethnographic fieldwork excerpts on more-than-human relationality in the city through three metabolic urban entry points that link rats, waste and humans together: bread bins, rodenticides and sewage networks.
Clee Zhuo Wang (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
Paper short abstract:
Based on a repertoire of 26 weekly recordings during educational walks in a Hong Kong country parks, this study introduces “soundmaking in movement” as an method to explore intimately the rich diversity of human and more-than-human correspondence and probe into the entangled becoming
Paper long abstract:
Known for its high-density urban environment, the city of Hong Kong easily impresses people with its 24 country parks accounting for 40% of its total area. Behind the apparent wilderness, the natural landscape of Hong Kong is deeply intertwined with fire, water, colonial history, human habitation, urbanization and geopolitical power shift. Anthropocene is not a metaphor or universal fact, but can be experienced and felt, should one choose to slow down and converse with the more-than-human. Inspired by walking studies (Springgay & Truman, 2018) and sonic geographies (Gallagher & Prior, 2014), we introduce “soundmaking in movement” as an approach to explore the rich diversity of human and more-than-human correspondence enabled by movement and temporality. Based on a repertoire of 15 consecutive weeks of recordings made in the same area during educational walks in one of the Hong Kong country parks, this study focuses on sound-making as inquiry into place and as correspondence-seeking. Particularly, we highlight the affective intensity generated in the process of soundmaking. In a narrow sense this practice establishes affective connections to nature and contribute to transformational intervention (Abson et al., 2017; Ives et al., 2018). More broadly, it provides one of the possibilities to contribute an earth democracy with diversified more-than-human representation (Latour, 1999).
Zofia Pałka (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland)
Paper long abstract:
The attitude of people towards feral pigeons is extremely diverse, which results in many different social interactions between these species in cities. In my research, I watch a lot of different kinds of connections between humans and feral pigeons, as well as pigeons with other beings. Feral pigeons engage in socialities (Tsing 2013) that I try to be attentive to. As Ingold (2013) argued, sociality does not have to be limited to just one species, and therefore I will focus on places where different (multi-species) interactions form rather than one species only. A particular place also affects the type of connections we are in, and this is crucial in shaping the urban space. Tsing (2013) noted that social theory could be also extended to non-vital things. Being sensitive to the social world of feral pigeons allows us to notice how human forms and planning affect lives of other city dwellers. Understanding this is crucial, in future more-than-human urban planning. I will discuss why we should redefine the position of people and let feral pigeons and other more than human beings co-create cities and other spaces we live in. This talk will be based on a more-than-human research about feral pigeons' sociality I conduct in the city of Poznań, Poland.
Yaara Sadetzki (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology) Daniel Monterescu (Central European University)
Paper short abstract:
We propose the concept of the “wilding city” by examining the relationships between “wild” roosters, "urban" boars and humans in order to shed light on the contested processes of more-than-human collaboration and resistance in the gentrifying city.
Paper long abstract:
We propose the concept of the “wilding city” by examining the relationships between humans, “wild” roosters and “urban” boars which shed light on the contested processes of more-than-human collaboration and resistance in the divided city. In the summer of 2021, following complaints from some Jaffa’s Jewish residents about "noise and odour nuisances," the Tel Aviv Municipality distributed leaflets announcing, "a terminal treatment of the wild roosters in yards and public spaces." At the same time, in the wealthy northside of the city, the municipality celebrates "urban nature" conservation projects, according to which "the presence of birds brings the city closer to nature”. Meanwhile, in Haifa wild boars fuel an intense political discourse on the proper place for boars in the gentrifying city. How does the nonhuman presence in the ethnically “mixed city” map onto the human complexity between Palestinians and Jews, veterans and new residents? While roosters are highly valued in both Judaism and Islam, free-range urban roosters are perceived as transgressors that disrupt regulated social order and unsettle the border between public and private. The animosity towards boars merges religious taboos and perceptions of spatial alterity. Boars introduce human-wildlife coexistence as a new urban social order in a way that cuts through ethnonational divisions. In the contested zoopolis and binational city, roosters and boars mediate between languages, temporalities, cultural practices and political identities. Animals engender communal coalitions and highlight growing disparities between rich and poor, Palestinian and Israeli, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi, between city and nature.
Giulia Gualtieri (Technical University of Eindhoven and Applied Science University Windesheim)
Paper short abstract:
Promoting Urban Nature-Centred Design (UND), this study emphasizes the pivotal role of agency in a multidisciplinary literature review. UND advocates a shift towards nature-inclusive urban approaches, aiming to envision non-human inhabitants as integral contributors to urban coexistence.
Paper long abstract:
Motivated by the imperative to address climate change impacts, notably the critical biodiversity loss, this study advocates for a novel urban design methodology. It aims to propel the shift from a human-centric to a nature-inclusive approach in urban areas, positioning non-human communities as primary agents in participatory design processes, coining this approach as Urban Nature-Centred Design (UND). Rooted in the intersection between participation and nature-inclusivity, UND demands a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach, merging diverse knowledge and experiences. With a dual aim of fostering an innovative, interdisciplinary design approach for participatory urban design processes and cultivating collaborations across different disciplines and cultures, the project begins with an extensive literature review. Combining a narrative review of the evolving relationship between cities and nature with a conceptual review of participation and nature-inclusivity, the literature exploration concludes with the pivotal concept of agency. Spanning post-humanistic and bioinclusive ethical considerations and notions of urban ecology and indigenous knowledge, the analysis recognizes the inherent multidisciplinarity of urban design. The paper concludes by emphasising the paramount significance of establishing a UND methodology. This methodology aspires to facilitate a profound reconnection between individuals and nature, urging the acknowledgement of non-human inhabitants as integral contributors to the community. Such recognition is envisioned as a catalyst for fostering harmonious coexistence in urban environments.
Agnese Bankovska (University of Helsinki)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores whether more-than-human entanglements in urban gardens are a precondition of caring ecosystems. Are they important in creating condensed urban spaces of biodiversity? Are de-anthropocentric gardens a speculation or a possible way of coexistence of diverse species in the cities?
Paper long abstract:
I am on my early morning slow being in one of my fieldsites, a suburban plot garden colony near Helsinki, Finland. Confrey is adorned in purple and white flowers that pleasantly vibrate and buzz in the sultry July air. Bumblebees, honeybees, and hoverflies go in rounds and visit each flower. It might be one of the top plants in the garden loved by different pollinators. However, it is not considered a ‘useful’ or ‘garden plant’ from a human perspective. Nevertheless, it is acknowledged as a ‘useful weed’. At least. Some human gardeners of my research have acknowledged its usefulness in several ways. It is a pollinator magnet, and it is also a great weed for making green fertiliser.
The multispecies entanglements of different scales are not uncommon in urban gardens. They are necessary for creating even more complex and overlapping entanglements in which gardeners of different species engage in reciprocal relationships. In my post-doctoral research and this conference presentation, I explore whether the clusters of such entanglements are a precondition of caring ecosystems. Can they be important in creating small islands of biodiversity in the cities? Are urban gardens the ‘perfect’ places of naturecultures in which the conceptual and practical divide between culture and nature is blurred? What happens when we imagine gardens where all entangled species are seen as gardeners in their own right? Are de-anthropocentric gardens a speculation or a possible way of coexistence of diverse species in the cities?